The decline was more than economists expected, Bloomberg News says. Reuters says the news "could ease fears the labor market recovery was stalling." Claims have basically been trending around a four-year-low level for much of this year.

We'll learn much more about the health of the labor market on Friday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics is due to report on April payroll employment and the April unemployment rate. In March, BLS has reported, the jobless rate was 8.2 percent.

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